Abstract
· Background: The focus of these studies was to determine whether the Y79 human retinoblastoma cell line could function as a good in vitro model system for studying human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. · Methods: Y79 cells were exposed to an HCMV mutant carrying a LacZ gene, and the resulting β-galactosidase expression in infected cells was assessed by flow cytometry. The extent to which the three classes of viral gene products – immediate early, early, and late proteins – were expressed was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting. Infected Y79 cells were also co-cultivated on human foreskin fibroblast (SF cell) cultures to recover virus. · Results: Infection of Y79 cells with the virus resulted in β-galactosidase expression as detected by flow-cytometric analysis. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that a portion of Y79 cells expressed antigens reactive to monoclonal antibodies against immediate early, early, and late HCMV proteins. The 43-kDa early gene product was also detected by Western blotting. Infected Y79 cells co-cultivated on SF cell cultures yielded infectious foci, which turned blue following X-gal staining, demonstrating productive HCMV infection in the Y79 cells. · Conclusion: These results demonstrate that while HCMV can productively infect Y79 cultures, it does so in a highly inefficient manner, leading these authors to conclude that this cell line does not provide a particularly good model system to study HCMV infection.
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Received: 30 September 1997 Revised version received: 13 May 1998 Accepted: 14 May 1998
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Kumano, Y., Laycock, K., Hook, K. et al. Human cytomegalovirus infection in a retinoblastoma cell line in vitro. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 236, 945–949 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004170050185
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004170050185